It doesn’t happen with every presidential election, but it does occur every dozen years: The Media Darling Candidate.

This time it’s former Utah governor Jon Huntsman getting more attention than his numbers would warrant. He is a sideshow novelty, like a two-headed calf: “Step right this way folks and see something you’ll never see anywhere else: A sane Republican, one who thinks the Earth is more than 6,000 years old. One who’s in no hurry to hasten Armageddon. Right this way.”

The Media Darling Candidate is humorous and knowledgeable, but never wins that year. Think of straight-talking maverick John McCain in 2000, or Bruce Babbitt in 1988, or Mo Udall in 1976. Huntsman is different only because he’s from Utah instead of Arizona.

It’s easy for me to spot the Media Darling Candidate because he’s always the one I like best in the given contest.

But it isn’t just Huntsman who’s strayed from Republican orthodoxy. Recall that front-runner Mitt Romney made a boatload of money running an outfit called Bain Capital in the 1980s.

Back in the 2008 primary season, Romney rival Mike Huckabee observed that Romney “looks like the guy who laid you off.”

That was a rather mild jolt of populism compared to what was unleashed last week by Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who said such companies are “vultures that are sitting out there on the tree limb, waiting for the company to get sick, and then they sweep in, they eat the carcass, they leave with that, and they leave the skeleton.”

Citing some jobs lost in South Carolina, where he’s stumping for its Jan. 21 primary, Perry said, “We have allowed these greedy people on Wall Street to take advantage. Instead of trying to work with them to find a way to keep the jobs and to get them back on their feet, it’s all about how much money can we make, how quick can we make it, and then get out of town and find the next carcass to feed upon.”

Few Wall Street Occupiers could have said it better.

Another blast came from another Romney rival, Newt Gingrich: “There has to be some sense of everybody’s in the same boat” and “he’s gonna have to explain why would Bain have taken $180 million out of a company and then have it go bankrupt, and to what extent did they have some obligation to the workers? Remember, these were a lot of people who made that $180 million, it wasn’t just six rich guys at the top. … If we identify capitalism with rich guys looting companies, we’re gonna have a very hard time protecting it.”

There’s “an underlying anger about the financial class,” Gingrich said. “Because people look over there and they go, ‘Wait a second. How come I lost my mortgage and you stayed a millionaire? How come I lost all my savings and you stayed a millionaire?’ ”

It would be nice to get answers to such questions, but they won’t come from Romney, who said, “I understand President Obama is going to put free enterprise on trial. Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich are going to be witnesses for the prosecution.”

Another witness might be our first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln, who once observed that certain “capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert to fleece the people.”

The “creative destruction” of capitalism may be necessary for the progress of our civilization, but it does seem curious that the “risk-taking job creators” generally aren’t the ones who’ll miss meals or lose their homes in the process. There are some who hold the shears while the rest of us get fleeced, and it’s pretty clear which side Romney’s on.

Freelance columnist Ed Quillen (ekquillen@gmail.com) of Salida is a regular contributor to The Denver Post.